Boston Children's Museum
308 Congress Street, Boston, MA 02210
617-426-6500
© Boston Children’s Museum 2024
Website Design by Jackrabbit
After being outside a few times, kids will know a lot more about the characteristics of the living things that inhabit their afterschool neighborhood. Focusing on what living things need (food, shelter/protection, methods of gathering food, etc.), this activity asks kids to invent a brand new creature that would be able to survive in the area around their afterschool. In the next activity, they have a chance to construct their new critter out of recycled material.
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Persuasive writing is a skill that children will learn in school and will need throughout their lives. Writing is very often used to convey an opinion or to convince the reader to honor a request or change their behavior—and advertisers are extremely good at this style of writing. By studying advertisements and then creating their own ads for what at first seems like a tough sell (cute, cuddly bugs), children will not only practice persuasive writing, but they will also grow more familiar with some of the tricks that advertisers use to “lure us in”. In addition, students will learn to use printed materials (books, magazines, nature guides) as important references and will have to study the characteristics of their chosen insect to better understand how to advocate for it. And by focusing on an insect’s positive qualities, children can come to appreciate every living thing as an important part of our ecosystem.
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Team storytelling encourages creative writing and practice of written language. It also helps children learn how to write clear sentences and paragraphs that develop a central idea, and how to be thoughtful about the audience and purpose of written material.
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Print making is the process of transferring an impression from 1 object onto the surface of another. In this activity, students will learn that a single object can be used to make infinite images of that object. They will gain a basic understanding of the printing process and will explore the printing possibilities of natural objects, specifically familiar fruits and vegetables. Printing with these items will also help students sharpen their observation skills as the results will accentuate details they may not have noticed before.
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Print making is the process of transferring an impression from 1 object onto the surface of another. In this activity, students will learn that a single object can be used to make infinite images of that object. They will gain a basic understanding of the printing process and will explore the printing possibilities of natural and found objects such as leaves, corrugated cardboard, keys, etc. Students will also gain an appreciation for the detail they can reproduce when printing and for the intricate features of everyday objects.
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Storytelling encourages creative writing and practice of written language. It also helps children learn how to write clear sentences and paragraphs that develop a central idea, and how to be thoughtful about the audience and purpose of written material. And because this activity requires teamwork, children will have to clearly describe their ideas and work to refine those ideas in order to synthesize their peers’ thoughts with their own in the final product.
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Building mobiles is a great way to teach children about concepts of balance while they also develop all of the process skills used in engineering challenges. By looking at how these mobiles move in the wind, they will also learn about air currents and how different shapes react to moving air.
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Making homemade wind chimes is a particularly satisfying activity. Not only do they sound great, but while children are constructing them they get a chance to use creative thinking and fine motor skills and to learn about the properties of different materials.
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Tangrams have existed for hundreds, maybe even thousands of years. They have remained popular for so long because they are simple to engage in, yet they can truly challenge the mind. By experimenting with tangrams, children will learn about a game from another culture while they investigate geometric concepts, properties and relationships. Tangrams also help children to develop visual thinking, spacial sense and problem solving skills.
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Making handmade greeting cards is a great way for kids to make use of the paper that they worked so hard to create. At the same time, making cards encourages creative writing and practice of written language. It also helps children learn how to write clear sentences and paragraphs that develop a central idea, and how to be thoughtful about the audience and purpose of written material.
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Boston Children's Museum
308 Congress Street, Boston, MA 02210
617-426-6500
© Boston Children’s Museum 2024
Website Design by Jackrabbit